Where to begin this SMcG post? It’s my first post since December of last year, and a lot’s happened and changed since then. Most significantly, I’m a dad now! My wife and I had our first baby on May 23rd, and his name’s Elliott. If you do the math, he’s not even 3 weeks old yet, and I’ve been off on leave of absence from work this whole time (I go back to work this Friday).

So although I’ve got numerous new cocktails I’ve tried since December 2012 to write about, I guess it’s only fitting that I start with an original one I created specifically to mark the occasion of our little man Elliott’s birth… It’s called “The Little Man”. In addition to this drink (the most important one to me), I’ve got 19 other new drinks I’ve mixed up for the first time, and one delicious punch on top of that, since my last entry. There’s no way though that I’d want to even write about that many all in one post, nor could I even do so if I wanted to, what with the 3-week old baby in the house and all. So I’m going to keep this post really short and sweet, in hopes that by doing so, I’ll be more inclined to write more frequently than I’ve been doing recently.

So for sake of brevity, I’ll keep this post to two drinks – two cocktails that I invented in fact… “The Little Man” and “The Billiken”. Although the Little Man is the drink closest to my heart, the Billiken is the original creation that I’m most proud of simply because it’s a damn good drink (if I do say so myself). The Billiken was created back in March during the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament in tribute to my hometown school and alma mater college basketball team of Saint Louis University.

“The Little Man”

1.5 oz Still 630 rye whiskey

3/4 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz Meletti amaro

2-3 dashes of simple syrup

1 dash orange bitters

1 dash lavender bitters

Shake well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass

Garnish with an orange twist

Many of these ingredients play a specific role in the characteristics of a drink created in homage to my baby boy Elliott…

The Still 630 rye whiskey because his dad loves rye whiskey and this particular rye because it’s a great St. Louis whiskey. I love my hometown of St. Louis, and I’m excited to share my love for this town with little Elliott. The lemon and amaro because when Elliott’s throwing a fuss, he can be a bit sour and bitter. But then you add the simple syrup and lavender bitters because in the end, he’s just a sweet little baby who happens to smell like flowers (at least to his parents). (The orange bitters and garnish don’t have any special meaning.)

But above all cheesy symbolism, the drink’s a fun one to drink. It’s a refreshing drink that I think would appeal to many different folks… it’s a sour while still being a mellow, smooth drink. I think that the variety of ingredients, from the amaro to the simple syrup to the lavender bitters to the lemon create a few different layers of subtleties, and offer a little bit of something for everyone’s tastes. A good drink for a great time in my life. Cheers to Elliott!

“The Billiken”

1 1/2 oz Plymouth gin

3/4 oz Lillet Blanc

1/4 oz St. Germain

1 dash of Boker’s bitters

Stir well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lemon peel hugging 3 blueberries

Of all the spirits to choose from, I figured gin spoke to me most when it came to basketball. (Whiskey just doesn’t seem like a basketball liquor.) The particular ingredients in this drink are fitting because, like SLU, none of them are particularly cheap (inexpensive). Also, these specific ingredients (ie. Lillet, St. Germain) tend towards the fancier and “less rugged” persuasion, I guess you might say… also similar to SLU and its student body. Lastly, the blueberries fit the school colors and may serve as a loose reference to basketballs. But most importantly, it’s a well built and tasty drink. I think of it as sort of an “elegant Corpse Reviver”… light, fancily delightful and delicious… like a ballet or a good game of college basketball.

“Summer Relief”

Why not throw one more drink in to this post for good measure, now that I’m on a roll (and the kid’s being good and napping)! (kind of like a bonus hidden track on a ’90’s cd, eh?)

I don’t want this post to be only drinks I made up, so here’s a good one as we hit our summer stride… the “Summer Relief” from Matt Seiter’s book “Sanctuaria: The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars”. This drink is downright delicious! It’s one of the heartiest gin drinks I’ve ever had. The grapefruit, honey syrup and surprisingly the St. Germain all add up to provide a substantial body for the drink. It’s a substantial and hearty drink, but also kind of a “girly” drink. But I don’t use the adjective “girly” to mean anything but awesome. I mean it in the highest form of praise that I can… like a fashion model with great style and amazing perfume. (I know that that is probably the absolute weirdest description of a drink that you’ll find in this entire Scientist McGee blog, but it’s in my notes and I trust my notes and my seemingly tipsy self from February, and it does ring a bell and I remember feeling strongly about this, so there you go! ha! ha!)

Happy holidays, everyone! Tis the season to raise a glass and toast our friends and loved ones!

My gift to you, to help with your toasts, is a new & improved 2012 edition of the “Scientist McGee Annual Cocktail Book”. Last January, I posted the very first edition of the collected recipes from the Scientist McGee blog. That edition collected nearly every recipe I had posted over the lifespan of the SMcG blog, with just a couple awful drinks removed to spare your taste buds. This new & improved 2012 edition includes those same recipes with another year’s worth on top of it. Plus a revised table of contents with a special “key” noting particular ingredients with “big personalities”, such as Chartreuse, Campari, absinthe and creme de violette. Basically “supporting actors” that can “steal the scene”, and for which some folks may not be particularly huge fans of (although others may “stand in line to get a ticket just to see this over-the-top supporting actor”). I figured these ingredients warrant a heads-up or a come hither note for my readers and imbibers. Once again, the “book” is posted in two parts that can be downloaded and printed, and then put together to create the finished product.

The “Scientist McGee’s Annual Cocktail Book: 2012 Edition” also features some “last minute cocktails”, just in time for pressing. These 6 new drinks are featured below and showcase some new ingredients for my home bar – swedish punsch, orgeat, Plymouth Gin and Fernet Branca. The latest 2 cocktails, the Hanky Panky and the Wellington, came from a brand new cocktail book, hot off the presses a couple of weeks ago, called “Sanctuaria: The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars”. This book was written by Matt Seiter, a high school buddy of mine and all-around good guy, who happens to be the bar manager of Sanctuaria. Sanctuaria is a tapas and cocktail bar in the Grove neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. This book is the tale of that bar and its cocktail club, and features the recipe of every single drink on the cocktail club menu – all 150 of them! It features the story behind each of the 70 original drink creations along with beautiful photos of each drink. I definitely and highly recommend picking up a copy at http://www.sanctuariastl.com . I guarantee that there will be many, many drinks from this book that will grace the future pages of this here blog, and I look forward to drinking each and everyone of them!

So I hope some of you enjoy the drinks – Happy holidays, and thanks to all of you who enjoy reading this blog, enjoy following my day-to-day imbibing on Twitter (@ScientistMcGee), and enjoyed some glassware from the “Scientist McGee’s Cocktail Glass Emporium” (http://www.etsy.com/shop/scientistmcgee) – it’s been quite a busy and fun year!

“The Hesitation”

This is a very good drink. This was the first drink I tried my new bottle of swedish punsch out with. I wanted to really taste the swedish punsch when I tried it for the first time, so I chose this very simple drink that’s equal parts rye and punsch. This recipe makes for a rich, fragrant, slightly sweetened rye whiskey drink. Very good.

Equal parts…

Rye whiskey

Swedish punsch

Stir well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

“Have a Heart Cocktail”

This drink wasn’t anything super unique or magnificent, but very good for what it is… which is a very good sour. It has a little bit of something special with the complexity of the Swedish punsch.

1.5 oz. gin

3/4 oz. Swedish punsch

3/4 oz. lime juice

1/4 oz. grenadine

Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lime

(“Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails”)

“Hoop La!” Cocktail

This is a good, easy-goin’ sour. It’s nothing that special either, but it’s good nonetheless. I like the gentler side of the Lillet and triple sec, against the strength of the brandy and lemon.

Equal parts…

brandy

Lillet Blanc

triple sec

lemon juice

Shake well and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

(“Savoy Cocktail Book”)

“Trinidad Sour”

Now here’s a VERY SPECIAL sour! What a unique and delicious drink! My friend Jack recommended this drink to me when I put a plea out for suggestions for a pre-Thanksgiving stay-at-home cocktail. His recommendation prompted me to go to the store the next day or so and pick up my first bottle of orgeat (an almond cordial syrup). This drink is amazing. This drink is thick and creamy, frothy in fact! This is a tough drink to describe for me. I had never had Angostura bitters in this large of quantity before. Plus it was my first taste of orgeat too. So two “firsts”, I guess. This drink is like a typical cocktail turned on its head… Instead of the bitters and the syrup adding the finishing touches, the rye whiskey adds the finishing touch on a drink featuring a full ounce of Angostura bitters. Don’t worry folks, it’s not actually that bitter of a drink either… It actually reminds me a lot of a “Blood & Sand”, oddly enough. You all owe it to yourself to try this drink. Thanks Jack, for the gift of the “Trinidad Sour”.

1 oz. Angostura bitters

1 oz. orgeat

3/4 oz. lemon juice

1/2 oz. rye whiskey

Shake well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

“Hanky Panky”

This was the first drink I made at home from Matt Seiter’s “Sanctuaria: The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars”, and it was very interesting and really good. The gin and sweet vermouth alone would be too sweet, shallow and light, but the Fernet Branca grabs them both and pulls ‘em back down, keeping them grounded. The Fernet comes in at the end and is a bitter bite that pulls the gin and vermouth back to reality, and rounds the drink out.

1.5 oz. Plymouth gin

1.5 oz. Italian vermouth

1/4 oz. Fernet Branca

Stir well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

garnish with lemon

(“Sanctuaria: The Dive Bar of Cocktail Bars”)

“Wellington”

This drink is really good… a really interesting sour with the mellow Swedish punsch ending that lingers. I love the very small amount of Heering. Actually, I think this drink really has the perfect balance of all the ingredients in the right proportions. Reallydamngood!

The conclusion that you might draw from the lame title of this post is that there’s no real overarching them to this post’s drinks. You’d be right! I present to you 6 random drinks that feature random ingredients, with nothing in common with each other, other than the fact that they’re all pretty damn good. A couple of them feature Lillet Blanc, which is a new ingredient for my home bar. Lillet is a delicious French aperitif wine. It’s rather sweet and fruity, consisting of a blend of mostly Bordeaux wines and some citrus liqueurs. One of its most famous roles being that of a key player in a cocktail with one of the best names ever, the “Corpse Reviver #2″. (I actually went out to get my first bottle of Lillet Blanc, specifically so I’d be able to make this drink.) Another new ingredient featured in this post is ginger beer. I love ginger ale, but this is the first time I’ve ever tried true ginger beer. Ginger beer is what ginger ale used to be like, back in the olden days. Ginger beer actually has ginger in it, and quite the spice you’d expect from a soda made with real ginger. A lot of classic cocktails call for ginger beer, so I picked up a bottle of “Lewis Osterweis & Sons” ginger beer, made by The Saint Louis Brewery (aka Schlafly). It’s not something I’d necessarily want to drink every day, but it’s definitely worth keeping a bottle or two in the house for when you do want one.

“Corpse Reviver #2″

What a delicious drink! I love the taste of the lemon with just a slight underlying flavor of absinthe, mmmm! I might actually think this drink is a little heavy on the lemon, and I might like it more with a little less, but nonetheless, it’s delicious! It’s very smooth and easy to drink, but also a bit complex in its flavor mixture, with the Lillet and a little bit of the absinthe (Note: 3 drops means just that, 3 small drops, not 3 dashes). Love it!

1 oz. gin

1 oz. Lillet Blanc

1 oz. lemon juice

1 oz. triple sec

3 drops of absinthe

Shake well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a cherry

“The Liberal”

I’ve been wanting to try this drink for some time, as I love its name too. It’s a pretty good drink. It’s got a unique taste. The amaro wrestles with the sweet vermouth, pinning the vermouth’s sweetness and adding a bittnerness, while the orange bitters and bourbon stand on the side lines cheering and encouraging the fight. Good drink indeed.

1.5 oz. bourbon

1.5 oz. sweet vermouth

6 dashes amaro

2 (healthy) dashes of orange bitters

Stir well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a cherry

The good version of “The Liberal” from “Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails” by Ted Haigh (above)

There’s another recipe for “The Liberal” that’s actually more common on the Internet. I, for one, am not a fan of this version. I highly recommend following the recipe above instead.

More common recipe (echh):

1.5 oz. rye whiskey

1/2 oz. sweet vermouth

1/4 oz. amaro

2 dashes or orange bitters

Stir well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lemon twist

The not-so-good version more commonly found on the Internet (below)

“South Slope”

This drink is delicious! It’s dry, citrusy, bitter and smooth, all in one! It’s a really nice cocktail, a perfect blend of tastes and senses.

3/4 oz. gin

3/4 oz. Aperol

3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc

1/2 oz. orange curacao

1/2 oz. lemon juice

Shake well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lemon twist

(“PDT Cocktail Book”)

“Mamie Taylor”

This is a good drink, with quite a unique flavor combination with the smokiness of the scotch and the spiciness of the ginger, pulled together by the unifying lime juice. It works very well together though! It’s quite a unique summer-time refresher. Ted Haigh writes in his book that this drink was considered a fancy drink back in its heyday, and I understand why… the scotch soothes the soul while the ginger excites the heart, and the lime keeps it all in perspective.

2 oz. scotch

3/4 oz. lime juice

ginger beer (not just ginger ale)

Pour the scotch and lime juice into an ice-filled highball glass, and fill to the top with ginger beer, and then stir gently.

Garnish with a lime wedge

“Paper Plane”

This is a pretty good drink. It’s a bit too lemony perhaps, but a nice flavor, all in all. All the different flavors (a little bitter meets a little tart) blend very well in to a good single, unified flavor. Definitely not a bad drink (but nothing that special either).

3/4 oz. bourbon

3/4 oz. amaro

3/4 oz. Aperol

3/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

“Siesta”

And last but not least… Definitely NOT least! This drink is absolutely AMAZING! This is one of the best drinks around. This drink is so good and delicious! The smooth, sweet tequila, with the tart grapefruit juice and the bitter Campari, smoothed out in relief of the simple syrup… Mmmmmm… a perfect mix of flavors! It’s a complex drink that’s both an “easy goin’ summer-time drink” and a “sophisticated cocktail” at the same time. Write this one down, then drink it down, folks!

Hey there everyone, I’m back. After nearly 2 months of being MIA, I’m back to share the tales of 5 new cocktails and 2 new books!

That’s right. I haven’t posted anything since May. My lapse is owed to a couple things… 1, I’ve been really busy with my day job (less time to drink and write) and 2, I went to Ste. Genevieve, MO with my wife to celebrate our 10th anniversary in early June. Ste. Genevieve is about an hour or so out of St. Louis and is one of the several regions of Missouri wine country. The weekend trip basically rekindled my fondness of wines, and ever since, I’ve been back on sort of a wine kick. It’s been a nice break from mixing up drinks, and just lazily pouring stuff out of a bottle and kicking back in the evenings. The only problem with wine though is the fact that I tend to fall asleep on the couch at about 9pm, waking up, with the TV on, at midnight, and then dragging myself to bed in the middle of the night. Wine’s great, but it makes me very, very lazy.

Even though I’ve been drinking much more wine lately, that’s not to say that I haven’t been replenishing and growing my spirits/liqueurs supply, as well as my cocktail books supply. Since my last post, I’ve invested in a couple new types of rye whiskey (High West Double Rye Whiskey and Riverboat Rye Whiskey), a bottle of Calvados (apple brandy) and a bottle of amaro (Ramazzotti
brand). I’ve also invested my time and attention in to Ted Haigh’s “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails” (http://www.amazon.com/Vintage-Spirits-Forgotten-Cocktails-Alamagoozlum/dp/1592535615). This is an awesome book, and apparently, one of the pioneering books of the current cocktail renaissance (originally published in 2004, “unearthing” these “obscure” drinks at the time, that are very well known today, just 8 years later). Even though, 8 years has dated this book, it’s still an awesome book worth buying for the way it’s laid out and the entertaining writing of Ted Haigh, aka “Dr. Cocktail”. Another book I’ve really enjoyed reading is the 1956 edition of Patrick Gavin Duffy’s (not to be confused with the curly-haired dad from the sitcom “Step by Step”) “The Official Mixer’s Manual” (http://www.amazon.com/Official-Mixers-Manual-Home-Professional/dp/B002CNKC7Y/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343534430&sr=1-7&keywords=official+mixer%27s+manual). I actually received this book as a surprise gift in the mail from my good friends in Lincoln, NE. (I love any kind of fun mail, but receiving a cocktail book in the mail as a surprise? It doesn’t get much better than that!) Actually, I had picked up a copy of this book at a book fair back in April, but it was an edition from the late ’60’s or ’70’s (I can’t remember exactly) and I hadn’t really gotten in to it yet. However, this earlier edition from the ’50’s is way more old school in its approach and references, and makes for a much more captivating read. I’ve really enjoyed flipping through this book, which organizes its drinks by base liquor and liqueur. Originally published in 1934, it’s definitely a great, classic cocktail book and really a “who’s who” of cocktails. It features a huge amount of drinks that are very popular today. It’s a very dependable, quality cocktail guide.

Anyways, I’ve gotten a bit off track. Back to what I was saying… Yes, I’ve been a bit absent as I’ve been drinking the “lazy man’s drink”, but as I’ve been drinking my wine, I’ve been enjoying reading up and jotting down some new cocktails to try (at least for a few minutes before I’d fall asleep). Here in this new post, I share with you the “East India Cocktail”, the “Calvados Cocktail”, the “Pegu Club Cocktail”, the “S.G. Cocktail” and the “Brooklyn”. Enjoy!

“Brooklyn”

The Brooklyn cocktail is a cocktail I’ve been wanting to try ever since I got in to making cocktails. For whatever reason, it caught my eye the moment I saw it online or in some book I was flipping through. I think it caught my eye because it’s got a couple of my favorite ingredients – rye and maraschino. It also caught my eye because of 2 other characteristics – I loved the name and also, my interest was piqued by an ingredient I’d never heard of… Amer Picon. I’d never heard of Amer Picon and then as I started asking for it in stores around town, no one ever had it. (?) Come to later find out it’s because it’s a French liqueur that for some reason isn’t available in the U.S. Well, I gave up on that idea, figuring I’d never get to try a Brooklyn cocktail, but at the same time, never really forgetting about the drink. It was always in the back of my mind as a drink I’d love to try, and thought about from time to time. Well, thanks to “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails”, I learned today that there are in fact substitute ingredients that come close to matching Amer Picon that I could get my hands on. He encourages the use of Torani Amer as a close substitute, but I can’t get my hands on that in St. Louis. So the closest I could do was get a bottle of Ramazzotti. Amer Picon, Torani Amer and Ramazzotti are all amaro liqueurs. “Amaro” is Italian for bitter, and these are bitter aperitifs, made of a mixture of herbs, spices, roots, citrus peels, etc. According to descriptions of Ramazzotti Amaro online, it’s a 200 year old recipe of 33 herbs and spices, with “notes of orange peel, cardamom, myrrh, galangal and cinnamon”. Most of the amaros on the market are made in Italy, but Amer Picon is one of the few (if not the only one) made in France. But alas, it’s not available here in the states, even though you’ll see it in many old recipes. So, I’m not exactly sure how close Ramazzotti comes to Amer Picon, but from what I can gather from info online, it comes close enough. I think it’s pretty damn interesting tasting, and this drink is pretty damn tasty! The Brooklyn is similar to a Manhattan, but with a nice, heavy layer of the amaro adding some complexity and depth. I love the healthy dose of maraschino. Mmmm… it’s a very good drink – sort of a deeper, more herbal Manhattan. Very good!

2 oz. rye whiskey

3/4 oz. dry vermouth

1/4 oz. Amer Picon (or Ramazzotti?)

1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur

Stir well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

“East India Cocktail”

This is a pretty good drink I found in the PDT Cocktail Book. It’s a pretty mellow drink (albeit, pretty heavy on the “orangeyness”), and a nice cross between a “tropical drink” and a “real cocktail” (no offense, anyone… Some of my favorite drinks are tropical drinks). The orange curacao/pineapple combo really lightens the drink up, while the dark rum and bitters brings it back down to earth. Pretty good.

1 3/4 oz. brandy

1/2 oz. orange curacao

1/2 oz. pineapple

1/4 oz. dark rum

2 dashes of orange bitters

Shake well with ice and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with an orange peel.

“Calvados Cocktail”

This drink was decent. At first, the drink tasted a little “medicinal”, but after a while, it grew on me and into a somewhat complex taste with its healthy dose of bitters. I’ve never been a big fan of cocktails with OJ, but this one’s OK. I’m not convinced however, whether I really like apple brandy or not. I feel like I could like apple brandy, but I don’t know… Maybe it’s just that there aren’t many good apple brandy cocktails out there? I don’t know… there’s not a ton of recipes calling for apple brandy or Calvados, but the ones I’ve tried, I’m not crazy for. Hmmm… only time will tell, I guess. I’m not ready to give up on it.

1 oz. calvados

1 oz. orange

1/2 oz. triple sec

1/2 oz. orange bitters

Shake well with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

“Pegu Club Cocktail”

This is a very good cocktail! As I’ve said a hundred times before, I’m not normally a fan of gin and orange juice, but I have to say… gin and triple sec and lime juice is great! This drink is more of a daiquiri than anything else, and it’s a solidly well put-together summer drink! I like how it’s a really refreshing summer drink, but the bitters tone it down a bit and make it more of a complex drink. Recommended for sure!

1.5 oz. gin

1/2 oz. triple sec

3/4 oz. lime juice

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Shake well and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

“S.G. Cocktail”

This is a pretty good drink. It’s nothing super special really, but just a nice drink for a sit on the porch after a hard day’s work in the summertime. It’s just a nice and simple sour rye and juice drink. The lemon actually packs quite a punch, if not a bit too much of a punch. That being said, I was happy to find, just a few pages earlier in Duffy’s book, a drink called “Ink Street”. The “Ink Street” is almost the same ingredients, but instead of an equal parts mix, it calls for 2 parts rye, and only 1 part orange and 1 part lemon (no grenadine either). I think this proportion might suit my taste a little better.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day holiday weekend. I sure did! Today was my first day back to work after a really nice, long 5 day weekend. I really didn’t make many new cocktails over the holiday weekend however, instead focusing more on drinks best suited for brunches and do-nothing relaxation such as the Bloody Mary and Mimosas. Now that I’m no longer just lounging around with nowhere to be at any certain time, and back to keeping a schedule, I need drinks better suited for enjoying after a long day of work, unwinding in the evening time.

In this post, I have 3 good cocktails to share with you… two of them, the “Blinker” and the “Xanthia Cocktail”, being very old drinks from books of mine and the 3rd being one of my own creation, named 5 minutes ago after my St. Louis neighborhood – the “Clifton Heights Cocktail”.

“Blinker”

I found the Blinker in my PDT Cocktail Book, which coincidentally comes from a book I just recently picked up at a used book fair, Patrick Gavin Duffy’s “Official Mixer’s Manual”. The Blinker’s a pretty good drink, and a very easy one to drink. It’s a cocktail that’s heavy on the fruit flavor, but in a very smooth, subdued and subtle way. The raspberry preserves add a real big fruit punch, while the simple syrup tones it down and keeps the fruitiness in check. The grapefruit also keeps the fruitiness in check with its light characteristic mellowing it all out. And as you may or may not have picked up along the way, reading my blog, I love rye whiskey and I also love a drink with grapefruit juice! All-in-all, a pretty darn good drink.

2 oz. rye whiskey

1 oz. grapefruit juice

1/4 oz. simple syrup

1 bar spoon of raspberry preserves

Shake well with ice, then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

(“PDT Cocktail Book” and “The Official Mixer’s Manual”)

“Xanthia Cocktail”

The Xanthia Cocktail is not one of my favorite drinks, but it’s a decent one. I picked this one out of “The Savoy Cocktail Book”. The yellow Chartreuse definitely takes center stage in this aromatic drink with a kick. The cherry brandy and gin hang in the background, blending nicely and both slightly mellowing and propping up the Chartreuse front and center. If you want a Chartreuse drink, this is it for you. If you’re not in the mood for a Chartreuse drink, this is not it for you.

1 oz. Cherry Heering

1 oz. yellow Chartreuse

1 oz. dry gin

Shake well with ice, and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

(“The Savoy Cocktail Book”)

“Clifton Heights Cocktail”

Last but not least… actually this one’s my favorite of the three. I’ve been experimenting lately with modifying one of my favorite cocktails, the “Blood & Sand”, by tinkering with its 4 ingredients (1:1:1:1) and switching out different ingredients a couple at a time. Rather than starting a completely new drink totally from scratch, this tinkering method is a nice, easy and safe foray in to creating my own cocktails. The “Blood & Sand” is made of equal parts scotch, Cherry Heering, orange juice and sweet vermouth. In follow-up to my recent reminder of the fact that I love rye and I love grapefruit, surprise… I worked those two favorite ingredients of mine in to the classic B&S recipe! I swapped the scotch with rye whiskey and the orange juice with grapefruit, keeping the Cherry Heering and the sweet vermouth. And it turns out to be a really great drink! It’s still got the rich, dark sweetness of a Blood & Sand because of the Cherry Heering, but because of having grapefruit instead of orange, it’s not quite as sweet. It’s less of an “out there” flavor combination than the Blood & Sand, and more of a familiar, common sense flavor mix. While I love the Blood & Sand because it’s kind of a crazy mixture of unique, vibrant flavors, I like this drink a lot because it’s got some of the same elements while being a really great balance of a smooth, no-nonsense flavor combination. I’m proud to say that I really like this cocktail. And since I couldn’t think of a clever name that’s a fun twist on the Blood & Sand moniker, I stuck with just naming the drink I made up, derived from one of my favorite cocktails, after the St. Louis neighborhood I live in and love, Clifton Heights.

In my last post, I declared winter to be officially over and introduced some new ingredients that I splurged on to inspire some new springtime drinks. Well, these ingredients are gleefully being used! I’ve got four new great cocktails for you featuring anejo tequila, Aperol, Rothman & Winter orchard pear liqueur and rhubarb bitters! All four of these cocktails are top notch, and so fortunately, I’m now sitting back, enjoying the beautiful weather and feeling very good about my bulk booze purchase.

(Side note: In my last post, I mentioned how I don’t normally drop that kind of money to buy this much alcohol all at once. So to see how I’m digging myself out of the debt I now owe to the household budget, see my new business venture selling vintage cocktail glasses at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ScientistMcGee?ref=si_shop)

“Eclipse Cocktail”

The first cocktail, and definitely my favorite of the four, is the Eclipse Cocktail. This drink is SOOOO good! It kind of reminds of me of the Blood & Sand cocktail (one of my favorites!) in that the smokiness of the anejo tequila reminds me of the B&S’s scotch with lemon instead of orange, Aperol instead of sweet vermouth, and of course the Cherry Heering as Cherry Heering. This drink is mighty good. It’s got a fresh kick of tequila shrouded in a velvety curtain of citrus and cherry… mmmm.

2 oz. anejo tequila

3/4 oz. Aperol

3/4 oz. Cherry Heering

3/4 oz. lemon juice

Shake well and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lemon peel.

(“The PDT Cocktail Book”)

“Rhubarb & Rye”

This next drink is an interesting one for me. It’s very heavy on the rhubarb, which at least in my town of St. Louis, is not the most common flavor. Yes, I see a rhubarb pie from time to time, but when I do it’s usually a pleasant surprise and seems like a rare opportunity. In fact, I’d never tried rhubarb until I was an adult. I like rhubarb though. Something… maybe its obscurity, maybe the fact that it’s a vegetable but it tastes like a fruit, I don’t know… but something about it kind of freaks me out in a good way. I like it though, and I like this drink that is definitely heavy on the rhubarb… an entire half-ounce of the rhubarb bitters in fact! The first time I made this drink, I scaled the use of the bitters back to 5 dashes (which is still typically a liberal amount of bitters). The second time I made it, I went for the entire half-ounce, as the recipe calls for, and it was a good call. The rhubarb definitely takes a front seat, but that’s the point I guess. It’s a very refreshing, springtime whiskey drink. The rye definitely plays in the distant background and the rhubarb, along with its citrus friends of lemon and orange, takes center stage. Very nice!

This was an interesting drink too. It reminded me of a Martini. It was good, and had the crisp bite that a Martini delivers. The Chartreuse, oddly enough, takes the place of the Martini’s olive(s), and the pear liqueur smoothly and effortlessly takes the place of the dry vermouth. If you like a Martini, but are open to something new, give this one a try.

2 oz. gin

1/2 oz. Rothman & Winter orchard pear liqueur

1 bar spoon of green Chartreuse

1 dash of orange bitters

Stir well with ice and strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish with a lemon peel.

(“The PDT Cocktail Book”)

“Improved Whiskey Cocktail”

Last, but definitely not least, is the “Improved Whiskey Cocktail”. This is a very good drink! The maraschino and absinthe rinse add a real depth and very subtle complexity to the nice and smooth whiskey base. The whiskey’s nice and smooth because of the simple syrup. This is a very good whiskey drink that goes down very nicely.

It’s been well over a month since my last post, and I have no real good reason for the delay at all. The true reason for the dry spell has been a total lack of inspiration on my part. I think I’ve been totally uninspired to try new drinks, because of the limbo between winter and spring that I found myself stuck in. I had grown tired of warm winter drinks, but wasn’t quite ready yet to mix up cool summertime favorites.

Well, it’s warm out there, and beautiful too! And I’m ready to drink spring and summertime fancy drinks! So in today’s blog, I’m putting winter to rest, and providing a “sneak peek” at some of the new lighter ingredients that should be gracing the SMcG blog in the next several months!

Let’s close out winter, shall we? And then I’ll show you the fun assortment of ingredients I splurged on this weekend, and am very excited to try!

Closing out the winter months, I’ve got two good ones for you…

“Breast Pocket Cocktail”

My favorite of the two is my favorite because it’s one I dreamed up. I call it the “Breast Pocket Cocktail” because it could very well be concocted at a beer drinkin’ party with a secret flask of rye in one’s breast pocket of their jacket. It’s a beer cocktail featuring the pride and joy of St. Louis, Schlafly beer (http://www.schlafly.com/), specifically Schlafly’s Dry Hopped APA (American Pale Ale). I love Schlafly’s Dry Hopped APA, and as I was drinking it recently, I thought that it would go great with some rye whiskey added to it. The beer itself is very hoppy and aromatic, and I thought it would mix nicely with the spiciness of rye (my favorite type of whiskey). After a few tries, I figured out a good balance where the APA contributes flavors to the drink without overshadowing the other ingredient. The hops of the APA go really well with the spice of the rye, and the orange bitters and lemon add a refreshing citrus zip. I’m not one to make up my own drinks. I think this is technically only my second? The way I see it is that there are thousands of amazing drinks that have already been made up, that I’m sure I’ll never even have time to try. I enjoy drinking my way through these, so why would I feel the need to focus on making up my own drinks as an at-home bartender? Unless inspiration strikes me, and I’m craving something that probably does not exist – like a cocktail featuring a hometown beer. I have to say, I’m quite proud of this delicious drink!

2 oz. rye whiskey

3 oz. Schlafly Dry Hopped APA

2 dashes of orange bitters

Build over ice, in a rocks glass, then stir gently, and garnish with a lemon peel.

“Left Hand Cocktail”

This cocktail’s one I made last night using one of my new ingredients, Aztec Chocolate Bitters (Fee Brothers). This drink comes from “The PDT Cocktail Book”, and actually calls for Bittermens’ brand of “Xocolatl Mole Bitters”. The only snag was that the Bittermens bitters cost $20 for a 4 ounce bottle, and I did not want to spend that much money on a bitters. So instead I bought the Fee Brothers, which ran me $6.50 for the same size bottle. I’d never tried either of these chocolate bitters, so I was a little worried that they’d taste dramatically different, and perhaps they do… I won’t know until I get a taste of the Bittermens. I have a feeling though that they’re similar enough to warrant saving the $14. Both are based on Mexican ingredients, featuring chocolate, peppers and spices. Some reviews I was able to find online described the Bittermens as more complex in its flavors and the Fee Brothers as having the chocolate flavor more prominent. Maybe this is true, however I found that I really liked the Fee Brothers bitters because of its spiciness. Maybe they’re more chocolaty than the Bittermens, but they’re also definitely not just chocolate… they’ve got some peppery spice and kick to go along with it! (I’m sure the Bittermens are in fact better and more complex, because the Bittermens are 53% alcohol, whereas the Fee Brothers are a water-based bitters, but the $14 I saved bought me 4 used jazz records and a stock of plastic LP sleeves on the way home, so I think I definitely won!)

This drink wound up being a very unique and tasty one. It was a dark, somewhat sweet drink, with a relatively bitter taste (with the Campari). It also had a nice freshness added though, by the peppers in the bitters, and just a faint smoky chocolate flavor underneath. It was definitely a very complex tasting drink, that I was glad I had tried.

1.5 oz. bourbon

3/4 oz. sweet vermouth

3/4 oz. Campari

2 dashes of Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters (or Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters, as called for in its original recipe)

Stir well with ice, and then strain in to a chilled cocktail glass.

Add 3 cherries on a pick as a garnish.

(“The PDT Cocktail Book”)

And now, without further ado… I declare winter officially over for me! On to my new springtime splurge!

This weekend, I splurged and bought more than I am usually able to buy at once. I had to do this though to gear up for spring and summer! As I explained earlier… I haven’t been inspired to try any new drinks.

But now I am!

Several of these ingredients I’ve been wanting to buy and try for quite some time. They are the Aperol and the anejo tequila, as well as the chocolate and rhubarb bitters. Aperol is an Italian bitter aperitif much like Campari (in fact it is now owned by the Campari company), but I’ve heard that it’s perhaps a bit sweeter and bit less intense and less bitter? (Not sure, but I’ll know soon enough.) Anejo tequila is tequila that’s been aged for at least a year, but no more than 3 years, in oak barrels. The oak barrels tend to be old ones that were previously used for whiskeys and Bourbons north of the border, adding more of a complex flavor than other tequilas.

The Luxardo maraschino liqueur is one I’ve enjoyed many times before and just needed to make sure to have plenty in stock for the spring and summer months ahead. As I’ve mentioned many times before in this blog, I love maraschino liqueur! I’d go so far as to say that I can’t live without it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ahem.

The orchard pear liqueur is made by Rothman & Winter, the same company that makes the creme de violette I have on hand to make my Aviations. This was bought on kind of a whim because I’ve just recently begun liking pears this year. Plus I spotted a recipe in the PDT book that looked really good (the “Statesman” with gin, orchard pear, green Chartreuse and orange bitters… mmmm…)

So let Spring begin! I’ll be gladly sharing some new drinks, featuring these new ingredients that have been added to my bar, in the upcoming season. Cheers, and Go Cards!